Florida Keys road trip for religious freedoms

By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic

Photography: TOM TRACY | FC

See earlier story - here - for a list of all the Fortnight for Freedom events taking place in the archdiocese through July 4.

KEY WEST | On a sunny summer Saturday in the Florida Keys — while others did things both secular and recreational — a group of pilgrims sang hymns, prayed part of the Divine Mercy chaplet, read a pilgrim prayer and recited the rosary.

They prayed the Stations of the Cross, heard reflections from the U.S. founding fathers, and stopped to admire sacred artwork, stained glass windows and historic grottos, as well as walk through an elaborate prayer garden.

For the fourth year in a row and as part of the nationwide Fortnight for Freedom effort of the U.S. bishops, a small group of South Florida Catholics embarked June 27 on a day-long pilgrimage to the five parishes in the Florida Keys.

The Fortnight event is a call to U.S. Catholics to defend their religious freedoms and monitor ongoing threats against religious liberties that impact Church entities nationwide. The Fortnight for Freedom is running nationally from June 21 to July 4.

Adding urgency to the Fortnight conversations this year was the fact that just one day earlier, on June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled five to four that the Constitution guarantees a nationwide right to same-sex marriages. The decision has prompted concern that the federal government might interfere with long-held religious beliefs and marriage traditions among faith communities such as the Catholic Church.

Deacon John Kirk of San Pablo Parish in Marathon, who led the Keys pilgrimage, began the day at St. Justin Martyr Parish in Key Largo by reading Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski’s statement concerning the Supreme Court ruling.

The statement notes that losing the understanding of marriage as a conjugal union of a man and a woman, in a permanent and exclusive commitment conducive to welcoming and raising the children born from such a union, weakens the family as the basic cell of society and imperils the human flourishing of future generations.

“Allowing ‘an act of the will’ to be substituted for ‘legal judgment’ is a recipe for tyranny,” the archbishop’s statement said.

Deacon Kirk reminded the pilgrims not to lose heart and to remember that “God is in charge,” so that no one should be ashamed if they can do nothing more than pray for the nation and religious liberties during the week leading up to Independence Day.

This year's Fortnight theme is "Freedom to Bear Witness." The program is designed to call attention to the rights of Catholic Americans to serve the common good according to their religious beliefs, an ideal threatened in a number of ways. One of those is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate that all employers provide coverage for contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs and services that are contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

“In the many centuries since Jesus we have seen great things happen where great leaders and great men show us the way,” Deacon Kirk said, noting the examples of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher from 16th century England. Also referencing the writings of Henry David Thoreau, Deacon Kirk said, “We can’t be half-hearted Christians, we have to be ‘all-in.’ There is truth or untruth, so our job as Christians and Catholics is to follow the dictates of our conscience and to make sure our conscience is formed correctly.”

“If you can do nothing else pray for our nation, pray for our leaders, they need our prayers,” the deacon said.

The Keys pilgrimage was coordinated by the deacon’s wife, Mary (Sis) Kirk as well as Sue Palguta, a graduate of the archdiocesan School of Ministry and extraordinary minister of holy Communion at San Pablo Parish.

Mary McFadden, a New York native and Keys resident since 2006, said she didn’t necessarily want to give up her Saturday to journey through the Florida Keys from north to south but that she felt obligated by conscience to participate.

“You have to do something and there was the opportunity and to shun it would be wrong,” McFadden said. “You can’t sit and make comments about what’s going on in the world if you don’t do a little bit of something.”

New Jersey native Martin Pfeifer, who owns a marine business in Marathon, said he would normally be out snorkeling or fishing on a Saturday but that he was inspired to make this year’s Keys pilgrimage even before the court decision.

“I thought the (Supreme Court) decision would be at the end of June so now it feels like a full throttle (urgency),” said Pfeifer, who is a member of San Pablo Parish. “It is a sacrifice for me today because there are no winds, so normally I would be out scuba diving but this is more important. It is only through prayer and fasting that we can move mountains so to speak.”

At San Pedro Parish near Islamorada, the pilgrims were greeted by a local Catholic woman who presented the travelers with small bottles of holy water that had been decorated by local Catholic children. The pilgrims also ran into a group of tourists engaged in a scavenger hunt.

In Big Pine Key, Father Randall Musselman, pastor of St. Peter Parish, came out to greet the Fortnight pilgrims, as did Father John Baker in Key West’s Basilica of St. Mary Star of the Sea, which was preparing for a Saturday afternoon wedding.

Two participants who traveled the furthest for the pilgrimage were Elaine Parker and Linda Gross. They head up several family and marriage-related ministries at St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish in Pembroke Pines and both also graduated from the archdiocesan School of Ministry.

Gross said she made a similar, Lent-related Catholic pilgrimage through the Florida Keys but noted this was her first chance to join one of the Fortnight for Freedom activities.

“I wanted to be here to pray for marriages and for religious freedoms because it does seem that we are becoming a minority in being able to stand up for what it is we believe; even to pray is doing something,” Gross said.

Of the Supreme Court’s decision on same-sex marriage, Gross said she doesn't necessarily think the recent decision is the end of traditional marriage. “I have enough trust and faith in God to know that it will be made right somehow, but all of us need to do our own part in order to get the pieces of the puzzle to fit.”